GUARDIAN
Friday, February 25, 2000
The second Jihad
By Reuben Abati
THE religious riots in Kaduna, and the current tension between Christians
and Moslems in the North, arising from the gradual but ominous spread of the
Sharia in Northern Nigeria ought to be considered, in the light of
historical evidence, as the re-invention of the Othman Dan Fodiyo Jihad as I
insist, The Second Jihad. This is not the first time since the First Jihad
in 1804 that religious differences would constitute an issue in the politics
of the North, but this is perhaps the first time that the issue will be so
systematised, so dogmatically, that it immediately approaches the
revolutionary proportions of The First Jihad. There are many similarities in
terms of ideology, purpose and method between The First Jihad, and this
present one. What we are confronted with is a cynical contest for power or
hegemonic spaces, this is politics at work, and religion - the Islamic
religion is the vehicle which the Moslem North, the Caliphate, the Fulani
hegemony has always used as a means of intimidating real and imaginary
opponents, in order to grab more space for itself and to frustrate the
possible growth and flowering of the opposition. The Othman Dan Fodiyo Jihad
had gained real momentum around Feb. 21, 1804. It is perhaps an accident, a
curious one, that it is also about this period in 2000 that the Sharia
Revolution currently sweeping through Northern Nigeria began to result in
ideological explosions. The 1804 Jihad spread like wildfire from Gobe to
Katsina, Kano, Daura, Zamfara, Kebbi, Zaria, Nupeland, and the Northern
fringes of the old Oyo Empire. In 2000, the Second Jihad is also beginning
to spread. In four years, it would have been exactly two centuries since
1804 but the patterns now emerging are familiar.
A proper departure point for this premise is to argue that The First Jihad,
like The Second Jihad, was based on an Islamisation principle, at the core
of which was the imposition of the Sharia as an overraching concept of
organisation and relations and as a prevailing legal orthodoxy. But what was
eventually practised was not a pure Sharia, just as the Sharia in Zamfara
today is a strange type, but a Sharia that was tainted by hegemonic
aspirations. Prior to 1804, the Fulanis had already emigrated to Northern
Nigeria from Sudan and elsewhere, but they constituted an outsider group, an
alien constituency, and were so treated by their Hausa host-communities who
were not Moslems, but African animists. Transiting alien groups are often
subjected to manifest psychological torture and the Fulanis were not immuned
to this fact of social co-existence. A proud, aristocratic group, they
resented their hosts, and sought power and more space. Othman Dan Fodio who
eventually led the revolution complained bitterly about Hausa rulers who had
gone astray from the path of Allah, and who had "raised the flag of the
Kingdom of the world above the flag of Islam and are thus unbelievers." The
objective of The First Jihad then, was to raise the flag of Islam, and push
the unbelievers out of power. In less than a decade, the Fulani Moslem
warriors had totally overtaken Habe country. Emirates were established with
Fulanis as the new aristocrats. It was a vicious and determined revolution,
sweeping through the entire North. The Fulanis however could not capture the
Kanem Bornu Empire but they succeeded in displacing the Seifawa dynasty and
changed the course of Kanuri history significantly. Other ethnic groups in
the North, and around the Middle Belt including the Junkuns and the Gwaris
were not spared. But it was the colonisation of the Hausas that was most
remarkable. Hausas became subservient to the Fulanis. They were displaced,
even if the new conquerors adopted the language of their victims. But the
real danger in this is that Fulani anthropologists continue to insist on
that score, that the Hausa is a language group, not an ethnic group. This of
course, is imperialist discourse. It is the weapon, in addition to Islam,
that has been used to suppress Hausa nationalism, and other forms of
independent self-assertion in Northern Nigeria. The Jihadists did not stop
in the North. By 1820, Alimi, and his son Abd' Salam had succeeded in
establishing a Fulani dynasty in Ilorin. It was the Ibadan army in 1821 that
saved the Southern fringes of the Oyo Empire from being overrun by the
Jihadists.
Our argument is that the strategy of the Jihadists has not changed since
1804, instead it has undergone several stages of re-construction. It has
been helped through that period by certain other forces. The first notable
force is British imperialism. By 1901, the British had more or less smashed
the Sokoto Caliphate. Lord Lugard, for example, exercised such enormous
powers that he could depose the Emirs of Yauri, Bida and Kontagora. But the
British eventually changed their minds, and propped up the Caliphate in
order to be able to control Northern Nigeria and to actualise their
obnoxious divide and rule policy. Imperialism was so successful in the North
on that account. The second force, is the military which the British helped
the Hausa-Fulani to hijack, and which the Fulanis have used for over three
decades in independent Nigeria as a means of stealing advantages. Thus, the
philosophy behind the Jihad comprises the following elements: the
destruction of anything possible that seems to give advantages to the
opposition, the stealing of those advantages and their eventual
appropriation, a determination to cause mayhem through any means, fear of
primordial isolation, and a desperation for power.
These are the same elements behind The Second Jihad. The same fear of
isolation and helplessness that set up the Fulani aliens against the Hausas
are reproduced in the enthronement of democratic rule and the cry of
marginalisation that is currently issuing forth from the North. The
marginalisation that is spoken of is not in terms of physical representation
in political offices (that is the problem of the Igbos) but the manner in
which democratic rule has removed the dirty hands of Northern opportunists
from the treasury and other sources of easy wealth which has served that
class so well for so many years. There is also something about democracy
which does not sit well with feudalists. The implication is that the
aristocracy of the elite is threatened and the prevailing orthodoxy can be
questioned. The Moslem-North has captured power for so long because, it does
not encourage anyone to ask questions. With democracy, minority Christian
groups, the Gwaris, Junkuns and Hausa nationalists could really begin to ask
questions, and that could subvert the gains of the Jihad of 1804. Hence, a
Second Jihad would seem inevitable as a means of checking this openness that
democracy is all about, and which The Sharia interprets narrowly as the
commandment of God in what is at best, a reactionary fashion. So, again,
when Sani Ibrahim, the Governor of Zamfara State says he would support any
state in the South which wants to adopt the Sharia, he is merely invoking
the spirit of Allimi, the nemesis of Afonja and Solagberu of Ilorin, and the
quip by the Sardauna in the 60s, that they would dip the Koran in the sea.
When the Jihadists boast of Arab support for their cause, they only remind
us of the terrible role played by the British in strengthening the
Hausa-Fulani hegemony.
The references to the South of Nigeria ought to be investigated. The issue
at stake, in my view, is both democracy and the long rivalry between the
North and the South. Every policy that will nationalise either a trend or
innovation is immediately feared by the political North because Southerners
given their advantage in education, are better positioned to benefit from
it. The rivalry between the North and the South is vicious also because it
is in many ways, a Moslem-Christian rivalry. There are Moslems in the South,
but they have learnt to live in a secular state, and for that reason, they
are despised by their fellow Moslems in the North. The standard project of
the political North has always been to dismantle anything that will offer
advantages to the South; and this is why when the North, through the
military, took hold of the Nigerian state, they simply destroyed its
institutions. It is beginning to look as if the intention is to ground
Nigeria by all means. The North that is feeling like an outside group is
determined to hold down the rest of the country to its level and
preferences.
One other problem is Obasanjo. He is the finest prong that the South has
produced in contemporary Nigerian politics. He just turns out to be a
Christian. For a Moslem-Northerner, that is like Christianising the state.
It is even worse, the man is a born-again Christian, and he continuously
makes a public show of that. Now, they can no longer tell their Arab friends
that this is a Moslem country. The struggle to ensure that all non-Moslem
symbols are removed from the public space is a vicious one. That is why they
would burn churches in Ilorin and kill Christians in Kaduna. The first and
the second Jihad are thus based on a conspiracy, and that conspiracy is
obvious.
Which is why it is unfortunate that the Obasanjo government is treating the
problem with so much levity that it is offensive. President Obasanjo had
once boasted that the Sharia will "die a natural death." What is now obvious
is that no Nigerian president should ever talk like that. By talking like
that, Obasanjo only showed how much of Nigerian history he understands, and
because this is not really much, he unwillingly strengthened the hands of
the Jihadists. They have since gained confidence, and are beginning to
behave as if they intend to win a special victory for the second centenary
of the First Jihad. But, if the Northern states all decide to go Islamic,
can they stop the rest of us from going away? I am against the option of
going away. We are not opposed to Islam but we think anybody who lives in a
decent society must obey the rules of that society. It is not religion they
seek to promote but their own craving for power. The challenge, then, is to
stop the Second Jihad. The Ibadan army saved the Yorubas by using force. The
British humiliated the Fulani Caliphate through a combination of force and
open conspiracy. We must throw everything at the Jihadists. We must force
Northern Moslems to live in a secular state. If that requires having a civil
war, well, let's get ready.
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